The Road to Facebook Credits: On the Home Stretch With New Payment Options

Facebook is requiring that Credits be the only payment option for social games as of July 1st. We've been examining the late stages of the transition process in recent weeks, including the steps that large developers and mid-market developers have taken toward the new payment system. At this point, the great majority of gaming developers on Facebook are already using Credits. It's a few regional developers who have had challenges with the integration, which explains some of the latest updates Facebook has been making to payout options around the world. Here's a closer look at what we see going on.

Regional developers — companies with one or two games popular in a single language region — seem to have had a slower transition than others. We're aware of massively multiplayer online Facebook games in Asia that currently do not have any kind of implementation. We also recently reviewed restaurant simulation TinierCafe, which hasn't integrated Facebook Credits, suggesting that even at least a few regional developers with a good foot in the North American or European markets are still monetizing separately.

This isn't surprising. Facebook has intentionally focused its efforts on big markets, big developers and globally popular options first. It began by adding Zynga more than a year ago, then bringing in other large developers before moving farther away from those Silicon Valley, and towards smaller companies.

With most of the platform covered, Facebook is now focusing on these more niche markets. Facebook expanded its PayPal payouts to new countries in May, and in June added 13 new alternate user payment options as well as a way for developers in any country> to get direct payments to their bank accounts (except for countries embargoed by the US government, of course).

Another is niche apps. For example, the Facebook Credits team described a situation to ISG in which a developer with a subscription model needed additional technical support to set up integration for a recurring pay period. That model hasn't been as big in the US, but it has had some success elsewhere in the world.